May 25, 2011

diy: scrap busting pot holders

I don't think I need to explain why I like pot holders or why I like using up left over fabric scraps. Why don't we just get down to business. Let get crafty babies!

Get your supplies in order. I fill my pot holders with two layers of that shiny teflon sorta batting stuff (can you believe that's the technical term?!). If you don't like the idea of using that you can find an alternative, just make sure it's heat resistant! My pot holder pattern is began as a 9" square and will be just slightly smaller when finished.

Take one heat resistant square shiny side up. Place the first strip of fabric right side up on top. Make sure the edges line up. Take your next strip and place is wrong side down on top of the first strip. For best results you can pin all three layers together before sewing, but as you can see here I'm rather lazy about these sort of things.

Sew along the left edge of the fabric leaving approximately 1/4" seam allowance.

Smooth seams by ironing.

Continue the three previous steps until you have covered the heat resistant square completely.

Trim off excess junk.

Do all that stuff once more! Now you'll have your second square finished. You'll notice that I didn't match mine perfectly. I'm not the perfectly kinda girl.

Now we're going to make a sandwich of sorts. The bottom layer will be the patchwork piece you just finished making. Be sure it's facing right side up. Next you'll place your backing fabric right side down. And finally you'll take a square of the heat resistant fabric and place it right side down.

Before you sew everything together you're going to want to add some fabric loops so you can hang these pretty things from a hook.

Take one of your 6" pieces of ribbon and fold in half. Place between the patchwork and backing layer. Be sure the looped end of the ribbon is facing in.

Pin along all four sides.

Sew along all four edges but leave a two inch gap somewhere so you can flip this mother out!

Turn everything inside out. I use a chopstick to really turn out the corner. A clean corner is important don't ya know?

Next take your pot holder over to the ironing board and straighten things out. Make sure your edges are turned out all the way before ironing.

After that all you have left is top stitching! Back to the sewing machine we go!

If you're feeling extra ambitious you can do some machine quilting before you top stitch around the edge. I did that, but it's not totally necessary.

Finish up the second the same way and baby you've got yourself a pretty pair of pot holders!